Don't Forget The Brain: The Cleveland High Robotics Team's Trip To St. Louis

In April, the Cleveland High School Robotics Team — known as the FRC 2733 Pigmice — were surprised with a wildcard entry to the world robotics competition in St. Louis.

The Cleveland High Robotics Team

Courtesy of the Cleveland High Robotics Team

Surprised, unprepared, and with just days to raise the money to send 17 members of the team to the competition, the mighty Pigmice raced to make the contests deadlines and get to St. Louis.

And they succeeded, sans one important detail: they forgot to pack the laptop which controls the robot.

“The laptop to the robot is like the brain to the person,” says Pigmice Team Captain Jaden Berger. “Without it, you’re not going to move.”

Faced with the possibility of sitting out a once in a lifetime competition, the Pigmice once again sprang into action, using nothing more than their wits, a borrowed laptop, and a WiFi connection that moved as quickly as a turtle in syrup. And in doing so, the team — which had never even won a regional competition — did much better than anyone expected.